


Press Start to Continue

by araxes



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-05-03 01:21:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5271248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/araxes/pseuds/araxes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shaw's injuries meant she was stuck on bedrest for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, Root has ways to keep her entertained.</p><p>"You stole an Xbox for me?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Press Start to Continue

Shaw’s return ended up being pretty anticlimactic.

The events immediately preceding her return, the faked death and reconstruction of the Machine, the quick and efficient destruction of Decima, the slow and tedious destruction of Samaritan and the successful reintegration of the Northern Lights program ended up overshadowing Shaw’s homecoming. She was pretty annoyed by the lack of fanfare for her return, admitting only that the specifics of her escape were pretty fanfare-worthy. Unfortunately, the only part of her escape the team witnessed was her return to the subway wherein she immediately collapsed in a heap of blood and aching bones.

Shaw was a little pissed off that she didn’t get to claim responsibility for blowing up Decima HQ. She was even more pissed off that the team went and destroyed Samaritan while she was in her pseudo-coma.

The first time Shaw woke up cognizant of her surroundings, Finch had told her she was on bedrest for the foreseeable future. Her arguments dissolved in exhaustion and when she tried to sit up, every muscle in her body ached with pain. With the betrayal of her body, she acquiesced with the declaration that as soon as she could walk again, she was going back out into the field. Finch had spluttered nervously but Root, with a hand held out to stop him, agreed.

Which led to her current situation, laying in a converted bedroom of their new headquarters, idly trying to wiggle her big toe. Her bedside table was stacked with magazines on every topic on the planet earth, a laptop and a book on _‘Coding for Dummies’_ and a phone with one number in it.

Which was useless considering Root never left her side long enough for Shaw to call her.

The fourth day Root sat on her bedside, eyeing her like she was the most amazing thing she had ever seen (which was bullshit because Shaw knew she looked like crap) Shaw had snapped at her.

“Don’t you have some errand to run for the Machine?”

Root blinked like she was just pulled out of a daydream.

“No.”

Shaw only sighed tiredly, she knew what Root was sticking around for. Memories of a subway station, an elevator, a kiss haunted her and judging by the way Root looked at her, like she had a declaration on the tip of her tongue, it was haunting her too.

“Root-”

“Shaw,” she interrupted, “I’m not going to force this. You don’t…you don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to.”

She put a hand over Shaw’s and squeezed reassuringly. Shaw’s eyes were glued to her lap, not wanting to see the mixture of pity and understanding that was constantly on Root’s face, she nodded dumbly. Root let go and stood up, heading for the exit, apparently called in by the Machine. She stopped by the doorway and turned back around. Shaw looked up and caught the sheepish grin on Root’s face.

“Though that doesn’t mean I forgot about the time you kissed me.” She said as she left the room.

Shaw rolled her eyes and dropped back down on the bed. It wasn’t like she could forget what she thought was going to be the last moments of her life either.

* * *

 

Root got busy again which meant Shaw actually started using the phone to text her updates. Partly because Root asked for them and partly because she couldn’t do anything else. Mostly it was because she was bored and she sure as hell let Root know it.

Root’s absence meant that Reese, Finch and Fusco overtook Shaw’s babysitting duties and each of them made Shaw miss Root’s suffocating, quiet presence. Finch would watch over her nervously without saying anything as if she was the Manchurian Candidate and he was terrified of stumbling upon a trigger. Fusco would bore her with details about his work which was less interesting now that Dominic was off the streets and also annoying because he seemed proud of the botched way he handled things. And Reese would alternate between his current numbers which made Shaw impatient and what Shaw missed out on which made her uncomfortable. The details of Root’s hunt for her made Shaw feel nauseated, where she should’ve felt awestruck by their use of the RPG or by their torture of Control or their kidnapping of some poor woman caught in the middle of things, Shaw instead felt uneasy. She knew what was driving Root and she knew what she meant to her, but Shaw also knew her own limitations and the idea of Root being spurred by something that Shaw couldn’t understand let alone reciprocate made her feel…

Of course, Shaw doesn’t text any of that to Root, instead only talking shit about the other members of Team Machine (in a nice way), and reiterating how _goddamn_ bored she was. It was annoying but if Root could annoy her way into whatever she wanted then so could Shaw; her dexterity was getting better and her muscles ached less, she could be out in the field if they let her. Unfortunately, using Root’s strategies against her didn’t actually seem to work as Root would only send back stupidly flirty messages or thoroughly inappropriate pictures.

Not that Shaw was complaining.

But the pictures were more a tease than anything; Shaw had expected tears and slow, sappy _lovemaking_ but Root refused to so much as kiss her. Her excuse was that she wanted to wait until Shaw was at a hundred percent but Shaw didn’t buy it. Root was waiting for The Talk and she would hold out on everything until Shaw would initiate it.

So that was another item on Shaw’s list of frustrations.

Root returned two weeks later with an air of indifference and a cardboard box. Shaw sat up slowly and watched her take out whatever was inside it, ignoring the lazy somersaults her stomach was making at Root’s presence. There were several questions on the tip of her tongue but none she could ask while still maintaining the aloofness she had built up, so Shaw sat in silence as Root hooked something up to the TV.

“What’s that?” Shaw asked.

Root finished doing whatever she was doing behind the television and turned around.

“Catch.” She said, throwing something at Shaw’s chest.

Shaw felt the item hit her stomach, her still shot reflexes too slow to catch it. She looked down to see a video game controller.

“You kept saying you were bored so I might’ve stolen that from some wannabe hacker’s house.” Root said, shrugging nonchalantly.

Shaw picked up the controller and looked at the corresponding home page on the television.

“You stole an Xbox for me?”

Root grinned and sat on the end of the bed, leaning back until she was flush against Shaw’s legs.

“I can think of another way to work on your hand-eye coordination but I’m not always gonna be here so…”

Shaw blushed slightly and dropped the controller.

“Did you bring anything to eat?”

* * *

 

Root ordered pizza at Shaw’s insistence and then she started up a game.

“This one is very popular with the kids.”

“I know what _Call of Duty_ is, Root.”

Root had procured another controller and was waiting patiently as Shaw picked her loadouts and customized her character.

“You know you’re not actually going to war, right?” Root said impatiently.

Shaw frowned, suppressing the comment on the tip of her tongue and choosing her final weapon before starting up the game.

Three minutes later and Shaw was ready to throw her controller through the TV. Root, armed with only throwing knives, had a ten kill lead on Shaw and Shaw was slowly losing her cool.

“How the fuck are you doing that? I shot you fifteen times.” Shaw said affronted as her character died, a knife lodged in their head.

Root shrugged, trying and failing to suppress the smug grin on her face.

“Throwing knives are one hit kills.”

“Bullets are one hit kills, this game is bullshit.”

Root laughed, sneaking up behind Shaw and putting another knife into her spine.

“Are you screen peeking?” Shaw asked suspiciously.

“Nope.”

Another kill.

“Are you using the Machine?”

“Nope.”

Another kill. Shaw gripped the controller tighter as her character fell once again.

Before she could put an actual, _lethal_ bullet into the TV, the game ended and Root turned around with a grin.

“Rematch?” She asked, teasing and self-satisfied.

Shaw threw the controller at her head.

“Fuck no.”

* * *

 

She didn’t touch the Xbox again until Root left with an agreement to have an actual real life knife fight when Shaw got better. Shaw wasn’t totally serious when she suggested it but she did look at local paintball fields just in case. It was a week later that she started a different game.

“I knew you’d like this one.”

Shaw didn’t look at the source of the voice that had been missing for the past week.

“It’s Batman,” she snorted, “of course I like it.”

Root stayed at the doorway and Shaw internally debated on whether or not to ask her to sit. They stayed in silence as Shaw-Batman glided across the screen and broke the arm of a thug. Root tilted her head.

“He kinda reminds me of John.”

Shaw frowned.

“No he doesn’t.” She said, now paying attention to Root in her peripherals.

“He’s tall, dark and broody. He has a sad backstory, a hard on for justice and he talks like he’s got permanent laryngitis.”

Shaw’s frown deepened as Root went on until she paused the game and dropped the controller on her lap. She faced Root who looked confused.

“You just ruined Batman for me.” Shaw deadpanned.

Root laughed loudly as Shaw continued glaring at her, not happy that her favorite superhero was ruined.

“You could always Batgirl, I hear she’s gay now,” Root said, “and I could be whoever her girlfriend is.”

Shaw rolled her eyes as Root winked.

“ _Batwoman_ is gay and you would never be a superhero. You’re more likely to be Poison Ivy.” Shaw said, not realizing her mistake until Root started beaming.

“I didn’t know you were a comic book nerd, Sameen.” She teased.

Shaw flipped Root off until she left the room laughing.

* * *

 

“I killed the guy, isn’t the game over already?”

“No, Sam. She’s giving you the choice of one wish; you can either bring the thousands who died building the Spire back to life, one million gold or you can bring your dead dog back to li-”

Shaw pressed A before she finished talking. Root watched as Shaw skipped the final cut scene and reunited with her virtual dog. Root stared at her in disbelief as Shaw played with one hand and had the other tangled in Bear’s fur. Noticing her gaze, Shaw and Bear both turned to Root with a look that could only mean  _‘what did you think was gonna happen?’_

* * *

 

“Are you kidding me?” Root said through gritted teeth.

Shaw grinned and continued pressing buttons idly on the controller.

“How are you _doing_ that?” Root asked, getting noticeably angrier.

Shaw continued pressing buttons as her character continued to juggle Root’s in the air. Originally, Shaw didn’t see the appeal of a fighting game with women whose characteristics extended only to their physics-defying breasts held by little more than a few lines of dental floss, but, watching Root get angrier and angrier was probably her favorite thing in the world.

“I’m trying…I’m trying…She wo-She won’t let me.” Root mumbled to herself.

Shaw laughed.

“Are you using the Machine right now?” She looked at Root to see her brow furrowed in the way that meant the Machine was totally talking to her.

“You’re using an all-seeing ASI and you’re _still_ losing.” Shaw said with a short laugh, pressing buttons without even looking at the screen. Root turned around, glancing at Shaw’s smug grin and then her hands were randomly pressing buttons on the controller.

“Are you button mashing?” She asked disbelievingly.

Shaw shrugged as her character cornered Root’s and began pummeling her, not even allowing her to stand up. It continued like that for a while, Shaw randomly hitting things and Root barely being able to stand up before a large _FINISH HER_ overtook the screen.

“I win again.” Shaw said, mostly to annoy Root.

Root huffed and threw the controller away as Shaw’s character shot hers in both kneecaps and then her head before patching the wound with her gum.

“Fatality.”

* * *

 

“Why are you romancing Liara?”

Shaw frowned and continued watching the awkward flirting on the screen.

“I didn’t mean to romance anyone.” She admitted quietly. How was she supposed to pick up all the clues from what seemed like fifty characters who wanted to fuck her?

Root laughed and sat beside her on the bed.

“I would’ve thought you were more of a Garrus kinda gal.”

“He’s like a brother.” Shaw said, making a face.

Root laughed and Shaw took in a breath, feeling a little bolder than usual.

“Besides,” She said, “I guess I kinda have a thing for techy, dorky nerds.”

Root smiled around a blush, Shaw decided to make more dumb comments if it meant Root smiling like a dork again.

* * *

 

_“Saaaam!”_

 Shaw cringed and tapped on the controller. Root who was sat beside her on the bed, continued working on her laptop.

“As if anyone could survive that.” Shaw said, rolling her eyes as Lara Croft fell an incredible distance and lived _once again._

Root looked up from her laptop.

“I can think of one person.” She said with a smile before going back to her work.

Shaw ignored the compliment and focused back on the game. _Tomb Raider_ was one of The Machine’s suggestions and Shaw hated to admit that it chose well. Root shuffled beside her until her arm barely touched Shaw’s. The contact resounded within Shaw, she felt her insides warm up and resisted the urge to move closer.

_“Saaaam!”_

“God, that’s annoying.” Shaw grumbled. Lara Croft had been yelling for what felt like most of the game.

Root shrugged, her eyes not leaving the laptop.

“I think it’s kinda sweet.”

Shaw made a face.

“Sweet?” She said disbelievingly, “It’s dumb, going through all that pain and suffering for one person.”

Root stopped typing, Shaw closed her eyes and swore at herself internally. She felt Root take in a deep breath.

“Maybe she thinks it’s worth it for just that one person.”

Shaw opened her eyes slowly and swallowed nervously. She kept her gaze directed towards the TV, not trusting herself to look at Root without saying something she would regret.

“She shouldn’t have to go through so much pain for that person, I… _Sam_ probably wouldn’t like it if she knew how much Lara was suffering for her. She’d want to sacrifice herself so that let Lara escape the island and stop hurting herself so goddamn much.” Shaw said in one quick breath. They were rapidly approaching The Talk but it was like Shaw couldn’t stop herself.

Root bristled against her and Shaw could feel the switch from hesitance to anger.

“It’s not Sam’s decision,” She said sternly, “Lara wants to save her because Lara felt responsible for bringing her on the S. S. Endurance-”

“Sam would’ve come regardless of whether or not Lara invited her, it’s not Lara’s fault she got on the island.”

“Lara still _felt_ responsible and maybe she wants to save Sam because she thinks of her as a lot more than a friend and she would’ve felt terrible if she let Sam die without knowing that I…that Lara…love-”

Shaw didn’t let Root finish the sentence, instead scrambling off the bed rapidly and barely catching herself before she fell. She stood on unsteady legs and stared at Root who back defiantly. Shaw could feel her pulse quicken and her blood rushing through her ears. Root had been so close to saying something that she could never take back, that Shaw could never unhear, that she could never reciprocate.

“It’s…it’s just a video game,” Shaw said, “It’s not that deep.”

Root looked at her like she wanted to finish her last sentence but something in Shaw’s expression must have stopped her because she only nodded and went back to her work.

Shaw sighed and looked back at the screen, at Lara Croft’s dumb, naïve, dedicated, loyal face. She decided that the Machine was definitely wrong and also a total asshole.

* * *

 

“So far the scariest thing has been Bear’s farts.”

Root grinned sheepishly. Shaw insisted horror games were useless on her and it took half an hour of running away from a virtual slender man to prove it.

“Should we just go back to shooting games?”

* * *

 

“Fuck you and your blue shells, Root.”

Root smirked and turned her wheel sharper, overtaking Shaw and sailing into first place. Princess Peach looked even smugger on screen and Shaw gripped her controller tighter.

“Mother. Fucking. Rainbow. Road. Fuck you.” Yoshi fell off the edge of the screen and Root laughed as she idly drove past the finish line, easily in first.

“That’s one more for me, Sameen,” She said as she got up, “get some practice in before I get back, okay?”

Shaw glowered as Root pressed a kiss to her forehead, already planning payback for the comment.

When Root returned a week later, the WiiU (that she actually _bought)_ was smashed into pieces beside the Xbox.

* * *

 

Shaw played video games less as she got better, instead dedicating her time to the gym and the shooting range. She felt her strength returning with every step, every curl, every bullet; she savored the adrenaline and dopamine rushing through her veins as she worked out.

Of course, the Xbox still got action whenever Root came around. Shaw was still avoiding their conversation and she couldn’t fill the silence herself so whenever Root would drop by, she would put on a game and they would either play together or Root would work silently as Shaw played. It was a comfortable kind of silence and Shaw hated that she was actually missing it with Root’s disappearances and her increased training.

While led to now, Shaw was playing the third and final installment of what was possibly her favorite video game series to date. Of course it was Root’s suggestion and of course Shaw would never admit it to her face.

“She’s a lot like you.” Root said as she watched Shepard run on screen.

Shaw smiled at the compliment, proud of being compared to the savior of the galaxy and a total certified badass.

“A badass?” She answered.

“A savior with a martyr complex,” Root responded dryly, “sacrificing herself when she hasn’t even evaluated all her options.”

Shaw frowned, The Talk just got a lot more imminent but she couldn’t help but defend herself and her Shepard.

“Shepard is a hero.” Shaw said.

Root snorted.

“She’s an idiot. No one is making her die.”

“No but when you die you’re supposed to go out for something you love, that’s what she’s doing. She’s dying so she can protect the people she loves, so she can protect…” Shaw looked at Root who was staring right back at her, “Liara.”

Root blinked, as if just realizing what they were talking about.

“Shaw…”

“Shepard doesn’t want the Reapers to get Liara…”

“Shaw, stop it.”

Shaw sighed and rubbed at her eyes. This was it, they were going to have the talk and Root was going to hate her.

“Why did you kiss me?”

There is was. The question Shaw had been dreading for the better part of six months. The question she didn’t have an answer to yet (that was a lie, she had an answer but she refused to accept it).

“Shaw, please.”

Shaw looked at her Shepard on screen with Liara, they were surrounded by the darkness of space, totally alone.

“I wanted to,” Shaw said simply, “I wanted you to know that there was a chance. I thought I wouldn’t make it out alive so I needed you to know that…that I thought about a someday.”

She heard Root take in a breath slowly.

“Shaw, I lo-“

“I can’t say it back, Root.” Shaw interrupted.

“I don’t care,” Root grabbed her face, forcing eye contact, “I need you to know that I love you.”

Shaw let the words sink in, not feeling panic like she thought she would. She let it sit with her for a few seconds before looking back into Root’s eyes.

“I know.”

Root laughed teary-eyed.

“Did you really just Han Solo me?”

Shaw kissed her smile away.

* * *

 

After two months, Shaw rehabilitation was finally over and she was allowed back on the field. Shaw accepted her release with enthusiasm and fell back into missions like an old habit. Sometimes she would tag along on relevant missions with Root if it called for an extra gun or if Root thought a particular number would be fun. Having the talk changed pretty much nothing between them, only that Root would sometimes sign off with a quiet declaration and Shaw would nod accordingly. Root never seemed bitter or annoyed that Shaw wouldn’t reciprocate the words, she only ever seemed happy and Shaw felt contentedness seep into every interaction. Shaw missed playing video games with her (though she would never admit it) and sometimes, when she was feeling lazy, she would pull up an old game and give it a spin. Of course, Root would find a way of ruining that too.

“I’m just saying that you don’t have to lie to me. I actually think it’s kind of cute.”

“Root, it wasn’t me.” Shaw warned, walking faster as if trying to get away from the conversation.

“You’re allowed to play any games you want, I was just surprised that you liked _The Sims_ as much as putting fifty hours into it.”

“I don’t.”

“And the little family version of us with Bear is cute, even you have to admit it.”

“It’s not mine.”

“Why are you denying this? I don’t even care.” Root asked, exasperated.

“Because it’s the truth! I’ve played it once and it put me to sleep, I didn’t make that gay little family and I’m not cute. It’s. Not. Mine.” Shaw said, punctuating the last few words before turning around and storming out of the HQ.

Root rolled her eyes, still not convinced.

“Whatever, Sameen.” She said, following Shaw out the door.

Finch and Reese stared after them incredulously. It wasn’t the weirdest fight they had had but it definitely was up there.

“Do you have any idea what that’s about?” Finch asked, turning to Reese.

John shook his head.

“Nope.” He said, pushing a few keystrokes and exiting out of his long running _Sims_  game.

**Author's Note:**

> Games references were the Call of Duty series, the Batman series, Fable 2, Mortal Kombat X, Tomb Raider, Mass Effect 1&3, and The Sims.
> 
> Thanks for reading. Send prompts to araxxes.tumblr.com/ask


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